We investigate the US' epidemic of domestic violence homicide and ask if weak laws are putting women's lives at risk.

The mass shootings in Littleton, Newtown, and the Washington, DC Navy Yard have become a rallying cry for gun control in the United States.

Yet, on average, every day across the country at least three women are killed by intimate partners, the majority shot to death.

Guns and domestic violence are a lethal combination in the US. In many states, domestic abusers can easily evade federal background checks by ordering a gun online, purchasing it at a gun show, or buying it from a private seller.

Even when public outrage pushed the gun control debate to centre stage, the US Senate blocked a federal proposal to expand background checks for gun purchases.

Fault Lines travels to South Carolina, a state with the highest rate of women killed by men, to explore the circumstances that put women at risk of domestic violence homicide.